Handbook of Family Business and Family Business Consultation

A close-up examination of several important consultation models and of the structure, dynamics, and operation of family businesses in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ireland, South Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States

This book is designed to fill an important gap in the family business literature. Florence W. Kaslow, Ph. D., Editor, an internationally respected authority in both family psychology and family business consultation, presents a disciplined look at how family businesses are structured, the ebb and flow of their dynamics, and the ways they operate in thirteen diverse countries spanning four continents. Top family business consultants working in those countries share their methods of helping clients increase earnings and fulfill the missions of their companies. The contributors examine essential aspects of the world of family business today, including family offices, globalization, and the management of a family’s wealth. Tables and figures, plus a helpful glossary, make complex and unfamiliar information easy to understand.

As the world’s economies interface and intertwine with the evolution of international markets and globalization, the Handbook of Family Business and Family Business Consultation provides the essential broad knowledge that family business consultants need in today’s business climate. It provides a capsule history of the premiere organization dedicated to helping family businesses, the Family Firm Institute (FFI), and then examines issues essential to anyone involved in, or consulting to, family businesses, including:

• the importance of family businesses to the economic well-being of countries worldwide

• family offices-what they are and why they’re important

• the significance of differentiating between the family business and the business of being a family for everyone involved in these overlapping relationships

• the multiple and diverse roles that family business consultants play in different kinds of businesses and in different countries

• the roles of non-family employees in family businesses

• gender issues that affect family businesses

• sibling rivalry and other issues of family conflict

• the trend toward globalization in various family businesses-and the implications of this trend in terms of family wealth dispersion, international understanding, competitiveness, and other emerging phenomena

With expert commentary from family business consultants in such a wide variety of countries, the Handbook of Family Business and Family Business Consultation is an essential read for family business consultants, family business owners, and Family Business Forum staff and member families, as well as professors and students in MBA programs and family business courses.